CHAPTER X.  TOBACCO OFFERINGS.
1808.
It was a beautiful moonlight evening in August. A shadowy haze lingered over the river, which glistened and sparkled in the moonlight. The Chief and several members of his family were seated on the beach in front of the Wigwam listening to the Honorable Joseph Papineau, who, with his son, Louis Joseph, had come up in a canoe to see the falls. The former had recently purchased from Bishop Laval the unsettled seigniory of Petit Nation, and had erected an unpretentious cottage, which he occupied during the summer months.
 HON. LOUIS JOSEPH PAPINEAU AND MADAME PAPINEAU. From Morgan's "Types of Canadian Women" (copyright, 1903), by permission. 
HON. LOUIS JOSEPH PAPINEAU AND MADAME PAPINEAU. 
From Morgan's "Types of Canadian Women" (copyright, 1903), by permission.
"It was a lovely vision," said Mr. Papineau, who had just performed the feat of canoeing to the foot of the Chaudiere Falls for the first time. "On our return we climbed the rugged cliff on the south side, and never shall I forget the panorama that spread out before us. The sun, sinking slowly behind the Laurentian hills, had clothed himself with a robe of splendor. The long reflections lay soft on the waters of the river below. The clouds of ascending mist from the Chaudiere took a thousand shades of color as the western sky faded slowly from crimson into gold and from gold to green and gray, and finally displayed dark shapes, out of which imagination might well have formed a thousand monsters.*
* Louis Joseph, afterwards known as the Demosthenes of Canada, and who almost succeeded in making Canada a Republic, with himself as President, was evidently much impressed with the scene, which he described as follows: "Le soleil etait pret decendre sous l'horison, la mureille tout limpide etait d'une transparence vivre, tout penetree de lumiere vaguement prismatiseé."
"As we watched the gathering shadows my thoughts went back two hundred years, to the time when Champlain went on his first trip up the 'Riviere des Algoumequins,' as he called it. About two years before he took the trip he sent Nicholas de Vignan, a young Frenchman, up the river with some friendly Indians, and Nicholas had returned with the marvellous story that he had reached the North Sea. He said that the journey could be made in a few days. He also gave an account of having seen the wreck of an English ship.
"Champlain was completely taken in, and lost no time in starting off to verify the discovery for which the world had been looking for some time. His fleet consisted of two canoes with two Indians and three Frenchmen, one of whom was De Vignan. It was in May, when the river was at its height. When they reached the Gatineau the Indians told him that their tribe were often compelled to conceal themselves amid the hills of the Upper Gatineau from their dreaded enemies, the Iroquois. When Champlain beheld the twin curtain falls yonder, 'like a slow dropping veil of the thinnest lawn,' he exclaimed, 'Le Rideau! Le Rideau!' The Indians told him that the waters formed an arcade under which they delighted to walk, and where they were only wet by the spray. As they rounded the lofty headland opposite he saw the cloud of mist rising from the falls, which the Indians called the 'Asticou,' which means 'Chaudiere' in French, or 'kettle' in English, for the water has worn out a deep basin into which it rushes with a whirling motion which boils up in the midst like a kettle.
"You have probably been close enough to have seen it, Madame?" he said, addressing Mrs. Wright.
"No," she replied, "I have always been too timid to venture so near to it in a canoe."
"Champlain said," continued Mr. Papineau, "that he paddled as near as possible to the falls, when the Indians took the canoes and the Frenchmen and himself carried their arms and provisions. He described with great feeling the sharp and rugged rocks of the portages to pass the falls and rapids until at last, in the afternoon, they embarked upon the peaceful waters of a lake where, he said, there were very beautiful islands filled with vines and with walnut and other agreeable trees."
"There are no walnuts on the islands of Lake Chaudiere," interrupted Bearie, "I am quite sure."
"He probably saw a butternut tree," said young Louis Joseph, "and thought it produced walnuts."
"Champlain's journey came to an abrupt close a few days afterwards," said Mr. Papineau, "when he reached Allumette Island, about seventy miles farther up the river. There was a large settlement of friendly Algonquins, called 'Les Sauvages de l'Isle,' and Champlain tried to obtain several canoes and guides to proceed farther. They, however, had their own commercial reasons for keeping the French from the upper country, and they warned him of the danger of meeting the terrible tribe of the Sorcerers. Champlain said that De Vignan had passed through all these dangers. The head Chief then said to the impostor:
"'Is it true that you have said that you have been among the Sorcerers?............